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A fraudster who handled more than $170 million of other people’s money is back in jail, this time charged with stealing someone else’s words.

Andrew Lech, 52, was accused of shoplifting by a bookstore security guard in Toronto on Feb. 3, prompting a police investigation and the discovery by the Repeat Offender Parole Enforcement squad that he was also sought for violation of his parole conditions.

Toronto police arrested Lech without incident and charged him with theft under $5,000. Two books and three newspapers valued at $65.79 hadn’t been paid for, said Toronto police Const. Victor Kwong.

Lech — who lived in Peterborough and had an informal network of sellers in London, St. Thomas, Oshawa, Toronto and Ohio — had been out of jail after serving time for one of the region’s largest and longest-running frauds.

“He is in a federal correctional facility. I can’t say which one,” said Corrections Canada spokesperson Kyle Lawlor.

Lech will be under Corrections Canada jurisdiction — almost certainly in custody, unless the parole board determines his past parole violations are no predictor of his future behaviour — until his six-year sentence expires, on Oct. 17, 2013.

Lech headed a years-long Ponzi scheme that drew in hundreds of investors in Southern Ontario and stretched, through him and his associates, as far as British Columbia, Ohio and Florida.

He was convicted of criminal fraud totalling between $50 million and $70 million and, after a trial in London in 2007, sentenced to six years in jail.

Lech was living in a halfway house early in 2009 when his day parole was suspended because he had been contacting former investors and had been circumspect about his job search and personal finances, contrary to terms of his parole.

During its hearing, the National Parole Board of Canada found Lech’s answers to be evasive and lacking credibility. It determined he remained dishonest, manipulative, remorseless and he continued to claim he was an innocent victim.

Returned to jail, Lech didn’t seek day parole again.

Then on April 6, 2012, he was released on statutory parole with stringent conditions.

Now his parole is suspended a second time.

Parole can be suspended —with a possible return to jail — if a parole officer determines the offender has breached conditions, is about to breach conditions or is at risk to society.

A parole board hearing may be arranged within 60 days, said a board spokesperson.

Officials would not say specifically what breach returned Lech to jail.

Conditions of his parole included no direct or indirect contact with victims or their families; no paid or volunteer work that included control over others’ money; regular and detailed financial information to his parole officer; be employed or in school; and no contact with people involved in criminal activity.

The parole board also took the unusual step of ordering Lech to get psychological counselling “to deal with any personal/emotional issues that may be linked to your past offending.”

The report cautioned he would be monitored closely and “any evidence of breaches of any condition will be dealt with swiftly.”